The 11 Chelsea Players On International Duty And When They Will Return Ahead Of Bournemouth Fixture
Chelsea will be facing Bournemouth at 3 PM on Saturday, and the Blues will be keen to have their players back from international duty as soon as possible.
Stars will be travelling long distances before returning to Cobham, and some will be ready to train earlier than others.
Read below as we look at the 11 first-team players currently on international duty and when they will be released back to Chelsea.
Emi Martinez and Valentin Barco
Argentina decided to play a friendly against Benin on Tuesday night, which is early Wednesday morning UK time.
It means that neither Martinez nor Barco will return to England before Thursday at the very earliest, and they may only get one training session in before the Bournemouth fixture. Martinez may start in goal against the Cherries (as long as he doesn’t pick up an injury), but you would not expect Barco to play this weekend due to jet lag.
Mike Penders and Romeo Lavia
There were concerns over Penders’ fitness after he was absent for Belgium’s first two Nations League qualifiers during the international break. However, he was named on the bench for the 3-0 win against Turkey, as well as the 4-1 defeat to France on Monday.
Lavia played 85 minutes against Les Bleus, but that was Belgium’s last fixture, so the midfielder (and Penders) should be back in training with Chelsea by Wednesday or Thursday.
Estevao
Unlike Argentina, Brazil didn’t choose to schedule a friendly this week, with their last one of the international break being played against India on Saturday.
It means Estevao will have a full week between games, and there should be no concerns about jet lag if he plays against Bournemouth on Saturday.